


You Tell 'em, Jack!

by fardareismai



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Foot Massage, Introspection, Massage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-09
Updated: 2015-09-09
Packaged: 2018-04-19 23:51:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4765649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fardareismai/pseuds/fardareismai
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor is being grumpy and not giving Rose the credit she deserves.  Jack will absolutely not let that stand!</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Tell 'em, Jack!

**Author's Note:**

  * For [chiaroscuroverse](https://archiveofourown.org/users/chiaroscuroverse/gifts).



> **TimePetalsPrompts on Tumblr is doing a fantastic pay-it-forward promotion. Readers are given an author to review, and authors are given a reader to write a prompt for.**
> 
> **My reader is the ever-fantastic Chiaroscuroverse, who sent me the following prompt:**
> 
> _Competitive massage: The Doctor finds out Jack has been giving Rose massages and decides to prove his skills and tricks are superior. Smutty happenings not necessary but always appreciated. :P_
> 
> **Fabulous prompt, right? Right! Unfortunately, as I started writing, the Ninth Doctor decided that he didn't want to be anything but grumpy and obstinate, no matter what I did. So instead of the lovely fluff I was asked for, you have whatever this is...**
> 
> **I'm so sorry!**

Rose stumbled into the TARDIS, kicking off the tall, thin-heeled shoes the Doctor had insisted (rightly, damn him) were native costume for every female on the planet they'd just visited.

Rose had looked askance at the shoes when they'd been presented to her initially. "Be a bit difficult to run in, won't they?" she'd said, hoping the Doctor was making one of his (not-always-funny) jokes.

"Won't be any running, Rose," he'd answered in that exasperated voice he always used when he thought she was being particularly dense. "It's a peaceful planet, and we'll be landing in a peaceful time."

She supposed she had to concede that he'd been technically correct. There hadn't been any running. Now,  _hopping_ , on the other hand…

"Bloody Lord of Time and can't manage to land us in a year that doesn't end up with me hopping for my life in a pair of bloody stiletto heels," she complained in response to a questioning chime from the ship around her. She picked up the heels and threw them across the room in a fit of pique. She didn't get the satisfaction of them hitting the wall though, because the TARDIS made them vanish in midair. She gave a chastising jolt to Rose's hand where it rested on the wall, and Rose immediately apologized.

"I know it's not your fault, and I shouldn't take it out on you, but-"

She was cut off as the door opened and Jack and the Doctor sauntered in.  _They_ were in perfectly comfortable footwear.  _They_ hadn't accidentally used the wrong form of the word "to meet" and had accidentally solicited the queen for sex. (Jack had done it on purpose.)  _They_ hadn't blushed awkwardly when their proposition was accepted.  _They_ hadn't had to figure out some way to get out of being added to the queen's harem of pretty aliens. And, worst of all,  _they_ seemed deeply amused that  _she_ had!

Well, the Doctor looked amused. He walked into his ship with a smug smile and strode up to the time rotor without a single word to her to check that she was well or to apologize for getting her into that mess.

She would probably hate him if she weren't so mad for him. Though, in that moment, she was mostly just  _mad_.

Jack was better. He made an effort to hide his amusement and school his face to concern, though she could still see the laughter sparkling in his eyes.

"You okay, Rosie?" he asked, crossing over to her as the ship groaned it's way off the planet. "Things got a bit sticky, there at the end, eh?"

"'Course she's okay," the Doctor said, interrupting Rose as she opened her mouth to answer. "Nothing our Rose can't handle, you should know that by now, Jack."

Rose shot a glare over her shoulder at him, though she couldn't seem to help the warm glow of pride that settled just under her heart at the implied compliment.

She wasn't about to forgive him yet though.

"Depends on your definition of 'okay,' I suppose," she said, resolutely turning her back on the Doctor. "My feet, back, and legs ache like you wouldn't believe from those awful shoes and I'm starving because I spent so long trying to figure out how to keep from ending up as a trophy wife that I didn't even get any of the dinner!"

Jack wrapped a sympathetic arm around her shoulders. "Know what you need, Rosie?" he said. "You need a long, hot bath, some chips, and a foot rub. Am I right?"

Rose ignored an odd growling noise that came from behind her, telling herself it must be the TARDIS and answered. "Oh my god, you absolutely are. Would you?"

"Of course," Jack said, and his mouth twitched as the growling got louder. "You run off to have that bath and I'll have chips in the kitchen for you whenever you're ready."

Rose threw her arms around Jack and he kissed her on the top of her head as the growl from the vicinity of the Time Rotor reached near fever pitch.

"Go on then," Jack said, shoving Rose in the direction of the more "domestic" portions of the ship.

Rose skipped off, carefully ignoring the sharp blue eyes watching her from over the TARDIS console.

Jack watched her go, smiling fondly at her and not looking away, though he could feel the Doctor's gaze like a physical touch.

"And what was all that about then?" the Doctor asked, trying and failing to sound casual.

Jack turned to face the Doctor, pasting an innocent look across his face. He knew it wouldn't fool his friend for a moment, but he refused to harbour even an instant's guilt over this. Neither he nor Rose had done anything wrong.

"You've run her too hard today, Doc. She's tired and deserves some rest and pampering."

"And  _you're_  the one to provide that, are you?"

Jack's mother hadn't raised a fool- he recognized the danger in the Doctor's voice when he asked that question- but he didn't care. The Doctor had made it clear what lines Jack was and wasn't allowed to cross where his pretty blonde shipmate was concerned, and Jack had toed them carefully. The Doctor didn't have a leg to stand on.

"I am, yeah. Certified masseuse on seven planets and in three centuries. Magic fingers," he said, flexing those digits at the Doctor cheekily.

"And how does Rose come to know about your magic fingers?" the Doctor asked.

"Remember about a month ago, you brought us to Descion to dance? Well, it's been known to be frequented by the occasional Time Agent, including me, and we met an old flame of mine. He and Rose danced a bit and she came back knowing a lot more about me than I expected, including that I give the best massage in five galaxies. She asked me to demonstrate since  _someone_ keeps taking her places where she ends up sleeping in jail cells, or running for her life in inappropriate footwear, or stuck hiding in a tiny crevasse for hours."

"If Rose is hurting, she should have told me," the Doctor said, frowning.

"Not a chance. She wants you to be impressed with her, and if she told you she was tired or hurting, you'd call her an ape, like you do, and make her feel weak."

The Doctor looked shocked. "Of course she's not weak," he said, genuinely offended that anyone might think it of her. "She's human, and she's fantastic. Not many can take to this life as easily as she has."

Jack smirked. "You know, Doc, I've been on this bus with you two kids for a couple of months now and I've never heard you say that to her. It's always 'keep up, Rose' and 'silly humans, sleeping their lives away' and 'you won't understand that, you're a human' and that gets to her."

"And massages help?" the Doctor asked, sounding skeptical.

"Physically, yeah," Jack said, refusing to back down.

"I've half a dozen things-"

"Yeah, you've got tools and devices from all corners of time and space in that infirmary of yours that I'm sure would help physically just as much, but she also gets to talk to someone who won't talk down to her for being a human."

"I never-"

"You do, actually," Jack said, cutting the Doctor off. "To both of us, but it matters less for me because-"

"Because you're a cocky bastard, completely sure of your own worth?" the Doctor suggested.

"Because I'm not crazy in love with you and convinced (quite wrongly I'm sure) that you've never looked at me twice."

Jack hoped he hadn't just gambled everything and lost. Rose would never forgive him telling her secrets unless she got what she wanted so desperately.

The look of absolute shock on the Doctor's face was almost funny. Jack had to sigh at the obliviousness of a man who claimed to be the smartest being left in the cosmos.

"You can't possibly tell me you haven't noticed all those long looks, the staring, the smiles, the hugs? She's mad for you, you idiot!"

The Doctor continued to look as though he had recently been hit over the head with a wooden stick.

"And, unless I know nothing about love, and let me tell you that that is the farthest thing from the truth, you love her right back. The hand-holding, the keeping yourself at a distance but giving her hugs that last way longer than necessary, giving her time and space as her plaything? No, Doc, I don't believe a word of it."

"Love…" the Doctor said, vaguely.

"Well, at least you've found your tongue again. That'll be useful to you if you do it right. I can give you some tips there… not sure how long it's been for you, and some skills do actually vanish without regular use-"

"Jack!" the Doctor shouted. "Shut up!"

Jack closed his mouth with a click.

"What the hell gives you the idea that Rose… wants me? You're far more her type."

Jack raised an eyebrow at the Doctor, who nodded to let him speak.

"What type is that, precisely?"

The Doctor shrugged uncomfortably. "Pretty… flashy…"

"Dumb and human?" Jack asked, and saw the Doctor blush. "That's your problem. You spend so much of your time fitting her into your model of 'human' that you ignore  _Rose_ , who is completely unique in the universe."

"You haven't met her boyfriend, Mickey. Or that idiot, Adam," the Doctor muttered.

"Oh, like you don't have exes that you regret," Jack said, skeptically.

The Doctor thought of a few run-ins he'd had in younger days, particularly in his Fifth and Eighth bodies- they'd been far too young and pretty for their own goods, but he'd often thought that Rose might have preferred them.

"Fine," he said, after a few minutes. "S'pose I do."

"Let me tell you what I see when I look at you two- sparks. You guys could set the universe on fire with all that energy between you. ProblemThe problem with energy is that, if it's directed wrong, it can become really destructive. That's Rose, you know. She thinks it's all one-sided, so it turns inward and just destroys her 'cause she doesn't think she's good enough."

"Not good enough?" the Doctor asked. Jack was beginning to scare him. "But she's-"

"Fantastic, I know. And you know. And pretty much every person who sees her or talks to her knows. The thing is that  _she_ doesn't know."

"How could she not?" the Doctor asked desperately.

"Oh Doc… there's one person in the entire universe that Rose Tyler wants to tell her that she's fantastic, and it's not me. It's not her mum. It's not Mickey. It's not Adam."

The Doctor stood for another long moment, staring at him. Jack could practically hear him vibrating from across the console room. Then, in an instant, he took off running down the TARDIS corridor, not a word of farewell left behind.

Jack shook his head and patted the TARDIS wall beside him. "You'll move my room far enough away from those two that I won't have to hear them, won't you?"

~?~?~?~?~

Rose sighed blissfully. After her bath she felt wonderfully relaxed. Most of her aches and pains had been soaked out in the TARDIS' never-cooling water, but a quarter-hour under Jack's skilled hands would just about make things perfect.

She didn't care about impressing Jack, and the Doctor would be buried under the TARDIS console, no doubt, so Rose tossed on a pair of stretchy black sweatpants and an oversized blue shirt, the same colour as the TARDIS herself. She eschewed a bra as it was just Jack, and she wanted to be comfortable.

Stepping out of her room, she followed her nose toward the smell of fried potatoes, blessing Jack Harkness, space slut and the best friend she'd ever had.

When she entered what she thought was the galley, however, she found herself in the cozy dimness of the library. There was a plate of chips on the table but, rather than Jack, the Doctor was the one sitting, watching the door as though waiting for her.

"Sorry," Rose said, turning quickly around. "Must have gotten lost again. Keeps happening. Meant to find Jack and the kitchen. Didn't mean to interrupt."

The door was nearly closed before the Doctor's shout of "Rose!" could break through her shock and embarrassment.

"Rose, I wanted to talk to you," the Doctor said, when the door stopped closing. "I… well the chips are for you, I know you're hungry. I just… there were some things I wanted to tell you… about today and about… things. Please? If you want to find Jack after, you can."

Rose looked around the edge of the door. It was hard to tell in the low light, but the Doctor didn't  _look_ like he was about to berate her for her mistakes on the planet, but she couldn't imagine why else he would want to talk to her. At least he hadn't called her out in front of Jack like the slowest pupil in the class.

She sighed heavily and crossed the room, not looking at him. At least she could have her chips while he told her off, though they'd have tasted better accompanied by Jack's sympathy.

"Sit, Rose, please?" the Doctor said, and there was something in his voice that made her look up at him. He honestly didn't look upset with her. He was watching her and he looked, if anything, nervous.

Rose lowered herself to the other side of the couch, making sure there was an appropriate distance between them, though she suddenly wanted to curl into his lap like a cat.

As soon as she sat though, the Doctor moved closer to her.

"Let me see your feet, won't you?"

"My… my feet?"

"Yeah. You wanted Jack to rub them, didn't you? I can do that for you while we talk."

"No, Doctor, you don't have to do that," she said, suddenly feeling self-conscious. "They don't hurt so bad as that, I promise."

"It doesn't matter to me if they hurt, they'd feel better if I rubbed them, wouldn't they?"

Rose hesitated.

"Please? I may not have all of Jack's credentials, but I do know my way around a human body. Doctor, me."

"Are you really? Like a real doctor, not just a name?"

The Doctor let out a small laugh and leaned forward to gently lift her feet into his lap. "Yeah, a couple of times over, on a couple of planets."

"Is Earth one?"

"Yeah, in a couple of centuries. Most recent was the 19th, but I've kept up with the literature, me." He winked and pressed his thumbs into the arch of her right foot with just the proper amount of pressure. Rose had to bite her lip from issuing a near-pornographic moan.

"About today, Rose," the Doctor began after a moment, and Rose tensed, waiting for his censure. "You were completely amazing. You know that, don't you?"

"Right," she said, bitterly, "except for all the bits I screwed up, right?"

"Absolutely not." The Doctor's voice was firm. "You were completely brilliant, full stop. Most couldn't handle that situation with your grace, and those that could would never have managed to get away like you did when it turned uncomfortable. And in those terrible shoes. I'm sorry I let you get into it, but you were fantastic. I love to watch you interact with the universe, Rose. You're amazing."

Rose looked up from her lap into the Doctor's flame-blue eyes to find that they were trained on her with the kind of intensity that he normally only gave wonders of the universe. She was speechless.

His hands ran over her feet again, finding the aches and gently massaging them away, but he never once took his eyes off of her.

"You're the most spectacular thing I've seen in all the universe, Rose Tyler," he said, locking her eyes on himself. "I don't say it enough, don't tell you when you impress me, because if I did I'd never say anything else. If I told you how wonderful you are every time I thought it, I'd sound like a broken record. I think how beautiful you are every time you walk into a room…"

"For a human," she whispered, glancing down, and suddenly he was moving.

He lunged toward her, practically lying atop her as he brought his hands to her face to hold it steady- hold her eyes on his.

"Not for a human," he said, his mouth barely and inch from hers as he spoke. "Not for a Time Lord or for anything else. Beautiful as a supernova- too bright to look at, to powerful to touch. You, Rose Tyler, are the most precious thing in any universe, any century, any galaxy. Do you understand?"

Rose shook her head against his guarding hands. She absolutely did not understand. She felt tears come to her eyes and he was over her, pinning her, so she couldn't wipe them away, couldn't hide them.

"Oh my sweet girl," the Doctor said, shaking his head as he brushed her tears from her cheeks. "I'm getting it all wrong. I'm sorry. I used to be able to say things, but I just… It's harder now." He took a deep breath and sat back, away from her, giving her space.

Rose sat up and wiped the tears from her cheeks, then looked up at him, eyes wide and glistening.

"What is it, Doctor? What is going on?"

The Doctor took one deep breath and released it. Then he looked up, meeting her eyes again. Rose was shocked to discover that his eyes were shining as well.

He extended his hand to her, as he had done so many times before, asking her to trust him, to come with him, to let him lead.

She'd never hesitated once in the time she'd known him, and she did not hesitate then. She reached out and placed her hand in his, letting his long, calloused fingers engulf hers.

"What I'm saying, Rose Tyler," the Doctor said, staring down at their clasped hands, "is that I'm completely mad for you. I love you. That's what I'm trying to say, and I'm mucking it up so very badly."

"You…. what?" she whispered, unable to believe.

The Doctor tugged at her hand, pulling her toward him, and she came. He settled her over him, her legs straddling his on the couch, her face above his, and he looked up into her eyes.

"I love you, Rose Tyler," he said, and leaned up to kiss her.

~?~?~?~?~

Jack opened the door of the library the following morning to find a lump of blankets on the couch and one dark, short-cropped head lying beside a long-haired blonde one.

He spun on his heel and left, closing the door silently behind himself.

"I suppose you could call it massage," he said, to the ship, consideringly.


End file.
